Faculty Development Library (2007)

There are many good books regarding faculty development available. Bill Cerbin and Betsy Morgan have created a small collection at Murphy.  They are under 3-day reserve under the name "Faculty Development" Morgan/Cerbin as instructors. A couple of the selections are currently on order.

*Those with asterisks are annotated if you hit the hyperlink:

Annotations

Boyer, Ernest L. 1990. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Boyer argues that if higher education is to meet its full range of responsibilities the concept of scholarship must be broadened to include not only basic research but other kinds of intellectual work in which faculty engage. Toward this end, four types of scholarship are proposed: the scholarship of discovery (traditional, basic research); the scholarship of integration (including such work as textbook writing, or synthetic reviews of literature in the field); the scholarship of application (professional service, or outreach, which draws on scholarly expertise); and the scholarship of teaching. For many educators, it was this Carnegie report that introduced the phrase "the scholarship of teaching."

Assessing Faculty Work : Enhancing Individual and Institutional Performance (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education) by Larry A. Braskamp, John C. Ory Contributor) . Jossey-Bass Publishers; 1994.
Today's faculty members, like other professionals, find themselves caught between the pursuit of individual gain and the common good. Society is increasingly demanding that faculty demonstrate social responsibility toward both the institution and the larger community. This book is a practical resource for fostering and assessing faculty achievements in all aspects of their work: teaching, research, practice, and citizenship. Larry A. Braskamp and John C. Ory show that the assessment process can and must be tied to faculty development, and they explain how collegial activity and continuous improvement are important to strong performance. They identify three major elements of faculty assessment - setting expectations, collecting and organizing evidence, and using evidence - and suggest several key goals for the assessment process. The authors also show how multiple perspectives enhance the credibility of assessment, and they describe sources of evidence, including faculty members themselves, faculty colleagues, students, and experts. Specific techniques used to collect evidence are provided, as well as summaries of research on the effectiveness of each procedure.

The Teaching Portfolio: Capturing the Scholarship in Teaching 1991. By Russell Edgerton, Patricia Hutchings, & Kathleen Quinlan. American Association for Higher Education, Washington, DC.
This monograph makes a case for using teaching portfolios as a means for improvement and evaluation of teaching. The authors argue that a good portfolio is not simply a list or batch of material, but a well organized case that documents an instructors goals, teaching practices, and evidence about student learning.

Glassick, Charles E., Mary Taylor Huber, and Gene I Maeroff. 1997. Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This sequel to Ernest Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered provides a framework of six standards for evaluating the range of scholarly work that faculty undertake -- be it basic research, applied work, or teaching. The six standards are: clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, significant results, effective presentation, and reflective critique. Particularly in the emphasis on reflective critique, Scholarship Assessed moves toward a view that the scholarship of teaching is more than excellent teaching, suggesting that it also entails practices that lead to new understandings on the part of the teacher, subject to peer review by colleagues.

*The Teaching Portfolio : A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions by Peter Seldin (1997) Ankor Pub.
Amazon review "This is an excellent guide for those looking to create a teaching portfolio and for those interested in improving education. Seldin's writing style is very easy to read and comprehend, and he offers excellent advice for the components of a teaching portfolio, working with a mentor, preparing and using the portfolio, and improving teaching through use of the portfolio. Additionally, there are many sample portfolios from a variety of disciplines for the reader's review.


Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus by Robert Boice(2000). Allyn & Bacon.
Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus is a unique and essential guide to the start of a successful academic career. As its title suggests (nothing in excess), it advocates moderation in ways of working, based on the single-most reliable difference between new faculty who thrive and those who struggle. By following its practical, easy-to-use rules, novice faculty can learn to teach with the highest levels of student approval, involvement, and comprehension, with only modest preparation times and a greater reliance on spontaneity and student participation. Similarly, new faculty can use its rule-based practices to write with ease, increasing productivity, creativity, and publishability through brief, daily sessions of focused and relaxed work. And they can socialize more successfully by learning about often-misunderstood aspects of academic culture, including mentoring. Each rule in Advice for New Faculty Members has been tested on hundreds of new faculty and proven effective over the long run -- even in attaining permanent appointment. It is the first guidebook to move beyond anecdotes and surmises for its directives, based on the author's extensive experience and solid research in the areas of staff and faculty development. For new teachers.

The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching Scholarship and Service (2001). Phillip C. Wankat.  Allyn and Bacon.
The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching, Scholarship and Service develops methods to improve the proficiency and time management skills of faculty in all areas of their careers. Most faculty are discipline experts but have not studied methods to improve their teaching, scholarship or service. This book applies efficiency and time management methods to academe. Throughout the book, the author shows how student learning and academic productivity can be improved by being aware of effective time management techniques. A variety of efficient and effective teaching methods are explored. Scholarship, service, and working with graduate students are also discussed. This book will help college faculty at all levels of instruction take charge of their careers! For college professors in all disciplines.

Good Start: A Guidebook for New Faculty in Liberal Arts Colleges by Gerald W. Gibson (1992). Bolton, MA: Anker

Drawing on his 25 years of experience as a university teacher and administrator, Prof. Gibson has created an informative and practical handbook for the novice academic interested in teaching at a liberal arts college. Good Start is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the small college experience from the perspective of new and rising faculty members. Prof. Gibson begins by advising newly-minted Ph.D.s on the ins and outs of securing a good teaching position at a liberal arts college. He offers practical advice on (1) how to select institutions suited to your talents and ambitions, (2) how to convince a favored institution to hire you, and (3) how to secure the best terms of employment once an offer is made. These initial chapters of the book are informed by Prof. Gibson's conviction that researching the specific needs, expectations, and institutional eccentricities of a prospective academic employer is crucial to a candidate's success, especially in today's tight job market. Of course, many of the strategies effective for negotiating with liberal arts colleges will also work with universities.

Psychology 101 1/2: The Unspoken Rules for Success in Academia by Robert J. Sternberg

Although written for academic psychologists, the text makes recommendations on how to have a gratifying career in the academic world.  Explains how to capitalize on individual strengths and turn career defeats into opportunities. Discusses the importance of networking and balancing personal and professional life successfully.

Pickering, Sam (2004) Letters to a Teacher

So in lieu of exhortations, Mr. Pickering offers a series of warm and amusing reflections on the teaching life. Some of the funniest moments come when he is describing interactions with his students. He writes of how he once told a student that she needed to learn civility. "The girl looked puzzled. 'Civility?' she answered. 'What's that? I'm not an English major.'" When Mr. Pickering does break down and offer some advice, it is usually gentle and cloaked in humor. "Parents will say dreadful things to you," he writes. "Do not let them burrow under the skin and get into your bloodstream. If you have to respond, go into your office alone, shut the door, and quote Tennessee Williams, preferably a terse, ripe phrase, something like 'Screw you' or 'Kiss my ass.' Afterward open your door, chuckle, step into the hall, and smile like the sunrise."

The Art of Teaching (Oxford University Press, 2004) Jay Parini

He wrote the book, Parini says, because he was concerned that there is not enough discussion about good teaching in higher education. "What I'm really shocked by is that young teachers coming out of graduate school have rarely given a second thought to teaching," says Mr. Parini. In one essay, he encourages young teachers to state their goals clearly at the beginning of a course: "Make sure that on your syllabus you let the students know exactly what is required of them: how many papers, how long, when they are due, and so forth." He also tells young teachers to "make your viewpoint known, to students and your colleagues. And don't be afraid to change your mind as needed."

I'm the Teacher, You're the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) Patrick Allitt, 

What Patrick Allitt has written is closer to an exposé than an advice book. I'm the Teacher, You're the Student is exactly what its subtitle suggests: an account of a university semester in the classroom. The book begins with Mr. Allitt preparing his course and ends with the grading of final exams. In between he worries about nearly everything, fretting about what -- if anything -- his students are learning and whether the sport coat he wears to class looks silly. Mr. Allitt, who leads teaching workshops at Emory, is not shy about criticizing his own teaching -- nor does he hesitate to let loose on lazy students. He quotes examples of poor student writing at length and then skewers them mercilessly. Some students confuse the economist John Kenneth Galbraith with the scientist Edward Teller; others can't tell the difference between novels and nonfiction books. And they write sentences like this: "Many did not survive the harsh journey west, but they still trekked on."

The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (2005) Peter Filene, 

How do you write a lecture, create a syllabus, or lead a discussion? In this book, Peter Filene covers the basics. He wrote it, he says, with freshly minted professors in mind. "I figured that new teachers in particular had very little luxury to entertain lots of theoretical discussion," he says. The book is brief (a little more than 150 pages) but it packs in lots of advice. In his chapter called "Constructing a Syllabus," Mr. Filene tells teachers not to cram too much into one semester. "In a survey of the English novel, for example, you can't imagine leaving out Tom Jones,Vanity Fair, and Middlemarch. Then again, can your students really read 2,280 pages in three weeks and also write that five-page midterm essay?" he writes. Mr. Filene suggests making a list of all the topics that need to be covered in the course and matching them with the number of classes. If there are more topics than days, start winnowing the list. "Engage in cold-blooded self reflection," he writes. "Did you emphasize [a certain topic] because it's the most important? Or because you wrote your dissertation on it and feel underprepared to teach the other sections of your subject?"

Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind (Yale University Press, 2003)  Gerald Graff

Professors and students don't know how to talk to each other. They might as well be speaking different languages. In fact, that's exactly what they're doing according to Gerald Graff; he dubs the two tongues "Intellectualspeak" and "Studentspeak." To overcome this, professors need to do a better job of explaining what the mysterious world of academe is all about. And what it is all about is argument -- or so argues Mr. Graff. The problem is that the kind of argument that goes on in classrooms seems different from the kind that goes on everywhere else. But really it's not, according to the professor. He writes that "a more conversational view of argumentation can demystify academic writing" and make students feel less like outsiders.

Sometimes that means altering the subject matter. "My maxim is, start with where students are,"    He writes that professors "need to disabuse ourselves of the widespread myth that academia and intelligibility don't mix.

Teaching at its best : a research-based resource for college instructors, Nilson, Linda, 2003 (2nd Ed)

Compleat academic : A career guide;  Darley, Zanna, & Roediger 2004. Text explores the unwritten rules governing a career in academia. Provides practical advice to help new academics set the best course for a lasting and vibrant career. With humor and insight, contributing academics share lessons learned through their own experience.  

Teaching college freshmen; Erickson, Strommer, & Weltner; 1991:  Gives new and veteran faculty practical guidance on how to most effectively teach and create academic support systems for college students in their first, most critical year. Describes how to design a useful syllabus, how to develop productive out-of-class assignments, how to enhance class participation through creative techniques, and how to evaluate student learning for better insights.